H1B LCA Faxback System and H1B Cap Dates
Posted Jan 19, 2000

The Certifying Officer of the Philadelphia Department of Labor (DOL) Region III, Richard Panati, recently advised AILA that the H1B LCA Faxback System went down again early last week, though as of January 14 the system is working again. Region III certifies Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) for H1B Petitions, in addition to certifying Labor certifications for the green card process.

The LCA faxback system of Region III has not been operational from time to time during the last several weeks. Similarly Region IX, located in San Francisco, which handles all other locations not covered by Region III had also been experiencing similar problems. These two regions certify the LCAs under the faxback system for the entire country.

Those who believe that they have sent an LCA between December 24th and January 1st, but did not receive the certified LCA have been requested to re-send the fax! At a time when the rush to file H1B Petitions and obtain approvals on an expedited basis is important, the delays in the LCAs being certified on time is causing unnecessary hardship and expense to H1B Petitioners and Beneficiaries.

As mentioned in our previous Immigration Law Bulletins of the Law Office of Sheela Murthy, the INS has again recently confirmed that the H-1B numbers have not been exhausted for this fiscal year (Oct. 1, 1999 until Sept. 30, 2000). Although the INS has not yet had the opportunity to review the H1B Petitions filed during the month of December 1999, a reliable source at the INS believes that the H1B cap will not be met before March 2000. Of course, these are only speculations till the INS actually counts all the new H1B Petitions filed at its Service Centers or has the auditing firm confirm the exact H1B usage at all the INS Service Centers.

As of January 13, 2000, the NSC reported that the last H-1B "cap" cases worked on by its examiners had an INS receipt date of November 2, 1999, while non-cap cases had a receipt date of November 1, 1999. The reason for the variance between H1B cap cases and other non-cap cases could be a result of the four INS Service Centers being required to equalize their processing time for H-1B cases, as explained in last week's (January 10, 2000) Immigration Law Bulletin of the Law Office of Sheela Murthy.